St. Joseph School District officials talk AMI learning expectations

By Jazmine Knight

The St. Joseph School District announced this week that it will be implementing virtual learning days this school year when necessary, and officials are sharing more about what that will look like for families.

For those unfamiliar, AMI stands for alternative methods of instruction. An AMI day can be used as a virtual learning day when students would otherwise have a day off.

“Some of that could be assignments online, but it could also be hands-on activities within the home,” Assistant Superintendent Ashly McGinnis said.

The district has been planning to utilize AMI days since last year. Since then, its AMI plan was sent to the state of Missouri and approved.

“We never did implement AMI days last year, but we were ready to go in the event that we needed to,” said McGinnis. “The reason that we are considering AMI for our district is mainly for those isolated incidents.”

For instance, take Hyde Elementary. Last year, the school had to shut down for one day due to a water main break. Instead of having kids miss a whole day of school, AMI will allow students to continue learning while receiving credit for completed school work and attendance.

“It’s beneficial for us to utilize AMI because we report our hours to the state and we have to have a minimum of 1044 instructional hours,” she said.

The number of instructional hours is based on the lowest number of hours at any given school. With AMI, this helps keep the district level with attendance.

“The AMI instruction will look different. It will be very individualized and also differentiated based on grade level,” said McGinnis.

Students that have difficulty accessing the internet or that have certain barriers within the home will have up to five days to complete AMI assigned material to receive academic and attendance credit. Those who fail to submit assignments within those five days will be counted absent for the day.

The district also understands that AMI learning will look different for each child. They know virtual learning can be difficult for students to engage with, especially if they don’t have parental support or supervision during that time.

“Which is why we’ve added in the five days to give those students some time to actually receive support, even from their teachers,” McGinnis said.

On AMI days, teachers will be available during certain times of the day to answer questions and guide students. Further, if a student still needs additional support, they can receive that help when school resumes.

McGinnis said while the teacher in the classroom is the most powerful method of instruction, virtual learning will allow for a continuation of instruction while other students in the district are still receiving education.

“So I think that continued learning piece is huge for our kids,” she said.

While AMI days will not replace traditional snow days, AMI offers another option for the district if they run low on inclement weather hours.

“If we were to run out of our inclement weather hours, which we have 36 of those, then we could tap into AMI, we have 36 of those hours as well,” said McGinnis.

Communication will be sent to parents Thursday night with information on AMI days. For the full AMI plan, schedule and/or answers to frequently asked questions, visit https://www.sjsd.k12.mo.us/departments/academic-services and click on Alternative Methods of Instruction (AMI) Plan.